Playing with the past : digital games and the simulation of history / edited by Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Andrew B.R. Elliott.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Kapell, Matthew, editor.

Elliott, Andrew B. R., editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History--Study and teaching--Simulation methods.

History.

Video games.

Electronic games.

History--Study and teaching.

Genre:

Electronic games.

Physical Description:

388 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2013.

Summary:

"Game Studies is a rapidly growing area of contemporary scholarship, yet volumes in the area have tended to focus on more general issues. With Playing with the Past, game studies is taken to the next level by offering a specific and detailed analysis of one area of digital game play -- the representation of history. The collection focuses on the ways in which gamers engage with, play with, recreate, subvert, reverse and direct the historical past, and what effect this has on the ways in which we go about constructing the present or imagining a future. What can World War Two strategy games teach us about the reality of this complex and multifaceted period? Do the possibilities of playing with the past change the way we understand history? If we embody a colonialist's perspective to conquer 'primitive' tribes in Colonization, does this privilege a distinct way of viewing history as benevolent intervention over imperialist expansion? The fusion of these two fields allows the editors to pose new questions about the ways in which gamers interact with their game worlds. Drawing these threads together, the collection concludes by asking whether digital games - which represent history or historical change - alter the way we, today, understand history itself"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

Introduction: to build a past that will "stand the test of time": discovering historical facts, assembling historical narratives / Andrew B.R. Elliott and Matthew Wilhelm Kapell

Part I: history as a process. The same river twice: historical representation and the value of simulation in the total war, civilization, and Patrician franchises / Rolfe Daus Peterson, Andrew Justin Miller and Sean Joseph Fedorko

What is "old" in video games? / Dan Reynolds

Affording history: Civilization and the Ecological Approach to Historical / Adam Chapman

Part II: history written by the West. Phantasms of Rome: video games and cultural identity / Emily Joy Bembeneck

Modeling indigenous peoples: unpacking ideology in Sid Meier's Colonization / Rebecca Mir and Trevor Owens

Dominance and the Aztec empire: representations in Age of Empires II and Medieval II: Total War / Joshua D. Holdenried with Nicolas Trépanier

Historical novel revived: the heyday of Romance of the Three Kingdoms role-playing games / Hyuk-chan Kwon

Falling in love with history: Japanese girls' Otome sexuality and queering historical imagination / Kazumi Hasegawa

Part III: user-generated history. Selective authenticity and the playable past / Andrew J. Salvati and Jonathan M. Bullinger

The strange attraction of simulation: realism, authenticity, virtuality / Josef Köstlbauer

Modding the historians' code: historical verisimilitude and the counterfactual imagination / Tom Apperley

Modding as digital reenactment: a case study of the Battlefield series / Gareth Crabtree

Part IV. the politics of representation. Historical veneers: anachronism, simulation and art history in Assassin's Creed II / Douglas N. Dow

"This game of sudden death": simulating air combat of the first World War/ Andrew Wackerfuss

"The reality behind it all is very true": Call of Duty: Black Ops and the remembrance of the Cold War / Clemens Reisner

Refighting the Cold War: video games and speculative history / Marcus Schulzke

Part V. looking back on the end of the World. Strategic digital defense: video games and Reagan's 'Star Wars' program, 1980-1987 / William M. Knoblauch

Fallout and the yesterday's impossible tomorrow / Joseph A. November

Irony and American historical consciousness in Fallout 3 / Tom Cutterham

The historical conception of Biohazard in Biohazard/Resident Evil / Robert Mejia and Ryuta Komaki

The struggle with gnosis: ancient religion and future technology in the Xenosaga series / Erin Evans

Conclusion(s): playing at true myths, engaging with authentic histories / Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and Andrew B.R. Elliott.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781623566142

1623566142

9781623567286

1623567289

OCLC:

839395603

Online:

Cover image